From Nogales going west there isn't much of a border road because of the hills and valleys. We took Ruby Road/238 west from Highway 19:

I thought it was be pretty simple to follow this Ruby Rd and find our waypoints along the way. Turns out I was wrong.
This route was rather complicated and lacked road signs or geographical features, and we ended up getting turned around.

Once we passed the ghost town of Ruby, AZ we were supposed to turn by an 'Oro Blanco' Reservoir. We didn't know where this was exactly or if we had already passed it. We plugged the geo coords into my phone and Bullitman's GPS. We got close but could never find the exact turn we needed to take. After a while we decided to just take a dirt road that led us in the direction we needed to go.

This brought us through some rough country, creek beds, windy inclines and declines. At one point we got to a fork in the rd and pretty much flipped a coin on which way to turn. We made the wrong choice.

Many rough miles later it spilled us out onto a paved rd, but at least there was a road sign. It said 'Yellow Jacket Mine' Rd and I recognized that as one of the trails we had to be on. I figured out that we were on the wrong end of it and needed to turn back around and go back through the creek bed.

Ruby Road:

When I pulled up to this waypoint, I noticed Bullitman wasn't behind me anymore. We had been hauling ass through this stretch and there were some nasty sharp curves where you could really go off the edge. Where did he go to?

A few minutes later he showed up with this in hand:

I guess my camping fuel couldn't hang on anymore and made the great escape. Bullitman noticed it bouncing down the rocky trail behind me and stopped to pick it up. Luckily the container didn't break, but the plastic loop on the lid fell off and it got some pretty good dings.

Looking back at the terrain we had just come out of at Fresnal Split:

The road to the border from here was awesome. Soft dirt, tight and windy corners... it was probably the best stretch of the trip to race the bikes through.

It spit us out onto the border east of Sasabe, AZ:

Turns out there is a Port of Entry at Sasabe. This was news to me, because as we rolled along the border and made it to the customs building, they really freaked the hell out. I guess they don't see people on dirt bikes coming down the border that often through here.

When we approached the US Customs building, I decided it would probably be best to present ourselves for inspection just so they knew what we were doing (even though we hadn't crossed any boundaries). The customs agent may have s*** himself, as his behavior indicated so:

"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?" he screamed waving his arms and looking extremely pissed.

We explained our trip from El Paso to San Diego and he didn't seem impressed or believe it was legal. In fact, he made it seem like our journey was going to end right there in Sasabe. After smoothing some ruffled feathers, and pulling out some maps, we asked him for directions (and made him feel important) he gladly pointed out our route through the hills west of Sasabe through a section called 'El Mirador':

He also explained to us that getting to the top of the mountain pass was nearly impossible due to the road being so rough and washed out. Here is the road winding up the side of the mountain:

I guess when you work in a box all day, a dirt road can look challenging. I probably could have ridden my cruiser to the top of the mountain pass, I don't know what he thought was so challenging about it...

Looking back towards Sasabe:

Coming down the west side of El Mirador pass we spotted our first Saguaro of the trip. Awesome!

And soon after seeing these tall cacti, we came across a really old adobe structure:

An old fireplace:

The ground was covered with footprints from illegals going through the area:

Amongst the great pics and story, there's this underlying thread or sense of 'High Drama' as you keep revealing... Well, ... Exposed tunnels, cars speeding by in the depth of night, footsteps in the sand...

I'm hangin by my fingernails waitin on the next instalment....

__________________
Out of 10,000,000 sperm, YOU! Were the one who WON! So, Do your Mamma Proud.... Go Hard! Or go home.... Cheers, Havagoodone....

Great fun being had by all it seems. I am amused by all the Border patrol freaking out that you report. It reminds me of when I was traveling in the Soviet Union and every kind of photography was forbidden by anxious agents of the state. Personally I'd rather go back to Mexico than deal with all that rigid officialdom on our side of the line.

Those old adobe and stone buildings are what is left of a Trading post called " Presumido Store".......Google it!
There is a lot of illegal traffic thru there!!!.........the last time I was there it kinda felt like we were being "Watched"!!!

Ha Ha, according to Google Directions I am only 23,694 Klm's from the Presumido Store...

That's 14,722 Miles- again that's Google Directions giving me a "route map" that apparently includes a ferry ride and travelling through Japan by road, as the quickest Journey.... Any Takers to get me some Milk?
Promise I'll have a hot steak and a cold beer for any that make the trip... :poke

__________________
Out of 10,000,000 sperm, YOU! Were the one who WON! So, Do your Mamma Proud.... Go Hard! Or go home.... Cheers, Havagoodone....

Ha Ha, according to Google Directions I am only 23,694 Klm's from the Presumido Store...

That's 14,722 Miles- again that's Google Directions giving me a "route map" that apparently includes a ferry ride and travelling through Japan by road, as the quickest Journey.... Any Takers to get me some Milk?
Promise I'll have a hot steak and a cold beer for any that make the trip... :poke

Is that the general attitude that the BP has about people using the border roads?

Geez, he's acting like it's not public accessed roads.
If you were not BP yourself, I bet he could have been much more of a problem. No wonder many people have very low respect for law enforcement and authority figures when things like that happen.

Maybe the guy was pissed as not much happens in Sasabe on the legal crossing ends of things and he didn't know to professionally react.
Anyway, I'm sure after your RR is done, he might be seeing a whole lot more bikes coming through. Thanks for blazing the PR trail for others to follow!

Quote:

Originally Posted by RuggedExposure

When we approached the US Customs building, I decided it would probably be best to present ourselves for inspection just so they knew what we were doing (even though we hadn't crossed any boundaries). The customs agent may have s*** himself, as his behavior indicated so:

"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?" he screamed waving his arms and looking extremely pissed.

We explained our trip from El Paso to San Diego and he didn't seem impressed or believe it was legal. In fact, he made it seem like our journey was going to end right there in Sasabe. After smoothing some ruffled feathers, and pulling out some maps, we asked him for directions (and made him feel important) he gladly pointed out our route through the hills west of Sasabe through a section called 'El Mirador':

He also explained to us that getting to the top of the mountain pass was nearly impossible due to the road being so rough and washed out. Here is the road winding up the side of the mountain:

I guess when you work in a box all day, a dirt road can look challenging. I probably could have ridden my cruiser to the top of the mountain pass, I don't know what he thought was so challenging about it...

Looking back towards Sasabe:

Coming down the west side of El Mirador pass we spotted our first Saguaro of the trip. Awesome!

And soon after seeing these tall cacti, we came across a really old adobe structure:

An old fireplace:

The ground was covered with footprints from illegals going through the area:

Great fun being had by all it seems. I am amused by all the Border patrol freaking out that you report. It reminds me of when I was traveling in the Soviet Union and every kind of photography was forbidden by anxious agents of the state. Personally I'd rather go back to Mexico than deal with all that rigid officialdom on our side of the line.

That's probably why this trip has not been done before.

After the idea 1st hits you and then on to the next logistic thought process, everyone just says no way in hell do I want to constantly deal with all that law enforcement day after day. What a pain in the ass, not to mention running into illegals crossing.

It's takes someone actually in BP to say fuck it, i'm going for it.
Rugged Exposure is kinda like Columbus the 1st time over or the Vikings.

After the idea 1st hits you and then on to the next logistic thought process, everyone just says no way in hell do I want to constantly deal with all that law enforcement day after day. What a pain in the ass, not to mention running into illegals crossing.

It's takes someone actually in BP to say fuck it, i'm going for it.
Rugged Exposure is kinda like Columbus the 1st time over or the Vikings.

I'd cut the BP some slack, I'm sure at times it feels like a war zone. I would worry about camping near the border and not from the BP but from the illegals. I hate the hassles of getting stopped in Mexico by uniformed kids carrying M16's.